The new-comer was an ill-looking wretch,

alleviating toothache by rubbing, he prevailed upon the keeper Laurent to give him instead, whose wife was the daughter of a secretary of a piece of flint, with which, and the steel buckle of his belt, he was able to produce a flame.

Thus provided, he went on cutting deeper and deeper into the floor, until he had almost reached the under surface, and he was able to fix upon the eve of the fete of St. Augustine, the 27th of August, as the time for his flight. But on the 25th a sad misfortune befel him. Laurent came suddenly into his cell, and in formed him that he was to be immediately transferred to another cell. Casanova was in a measure consoled for the unhappy conclusion, of his plan of escape in seeing that his armchair, in the bottom of which was concealed his iron pike, was to be taken to his new place of confinement.

Two hours after, Laurent, having discovered the opening in the floor of the cell just left vacant, broke in upon his prisoner with the bitterest taunts, demanding to know who it was that had supplied him with the tools with which he had cut through the planks. Casanova startled Laurent by the declaration that he himself had furnished all the materials requisite for the work, and promised to reveal everything in the presence of a secretary-an offer which the frightened jailer was prompt to decline, since a revelation of this sort might have caused him to be hanged for his careless

ness.

Laurent was therefore to some extent in Casanova's power, and the latter, profiting by this advantage, and furthermore cajoling the jailer by presents of money to his wife, obtained many little favours, such as the loan of books belonging to other prisoners. By means of one of these books he conducted a correspondence with two gentlemen, Marin Balbi, a Venetian noble and monk, and the Count Andre Asquin, who were confined in the room immediately over his head. Their notes were secreted in the pocket formed between the parchment at the back and the body of the volume, and Casanova was even adroit, enough to send his iron pike to Balbi in this way, by inducing Laurent to carry a pie to the monk in a dish which was placed upon the volume spread open in the middle, and used as a waiter.

the council, and had himself served as a spy in the employment of the grand-master, so that it was necessary to act towards him with great circumspection. Casanova worked upon his fears and his superstition, inducing him to believe that upon a certain night-the time agreed upon between Balbi and himself for effecting their escape-a messenger from Heaven would descend to deliver them from the prison. At length the night arrived, the monk overhead pierced the ceiling, and Casanova ascended to the next floor, taking with him his companion, who was in a condition of abject terror.

At the last moment, when an opening had been easily effected from the upper cell, directly under the leads, to the roof, the courage of the Count Andre Asquin failed him, and Casanova and Balbi, leaving also behind them the trembling ex-spy, made their way to the top of the building, armed with an iron pike and carrying long ropes, made of strips of clothing, with which they hoped to effect a descent to the ground. The roof was steep, and rendered slippery by a dense mist; the moon had gone down; far below them lay Venice, and as they crawled to the ridge pole, it was at the momentary risk of sliding off and being dashed to pieces against the pavement.

After vainly endeavouring to find some bolt or beam to which he might attach their cords, Casanova went on a voyage of exploration around the roof, peering across the blackness of the intervening space at the clock-tower of St. Mark's, which rose darkly above them, but finding no way by which they could get down from their dizzy elevation. When the effort seemed almost hopeless a garret window was discovered at an apparently inaccessible point below them. By means of a ladder left upon the roof, very perilously adjusted by them, the monk and the chevalier managed to gain an entrance by the window into the garret, from which they made their way, little by little, to the lower apartments, passing through the grand audience gallery, and at last, in the early morning, when the janitor came to open the building, walking leisurely down the grand staircase, unquestioned, into the open

air.

Balbi, armed with the pike, began at once Casanova met with many adventures on his to cut into the floor by way of establishing a way to the frontier (passing one night under communication with the cell of Casanova, and the hospitable roof of a high officer of the was making excellent progress, when a fellow-police, who had left home in search of him). prisoner was introduced into this latter apartment.

but at length gaining a place of safety without the jurisdiction of Venice, whence he went not

long afterwards to Paris, and recounted his hair-breadth 'scapes with great eclat in the drawing-rooms of that wonder-loving capital.

BARON TRENCK.

Frederick Baron Trenck was the son of a high officer in the Prussian army, and cousin german of the famous Trenck, colonel of Pandours in the service of Maria Theresa. At the age of eighteen the baron became an officer of the body-guard of Frederick II., and was greatly in favour with that sovereign. Young, handsome, of approved courage, he had many enemies, among whom, unfortunately, he had soon to number the king himself. One reason that was given for the change in the royal disposition towards Trenck was that he had made himself acceptable in the eyes of the Princess Amelia, the king's sister. Carlyle altogether discredits this affaire du cœur; and, indeed, throughout his life of Frederick II., mentions Trenck only in most contemptuous Carlylese, as a fraud, a babbling, conceited, empty fellow, who had not quite got his deserts. What ever may have been the cause of Frederick's dislike, it is certain that it was manifested in a very decided way.

himself, from this day forward he was more narrowly guarded. But years afterwards the villain who had sold them, meeting Trenck at Warsaw, received the chastisement he deserved, and, desiring satisfaction with weapons, was left dead on the spot.

The king was greatly irritated at the discovery of this plot, which seemed to him to confirm the imputations against the prisoner. Solicited a short time before by Trenck's mother to set her son at liberty, he had replied in terms that gave her reason to hope for his pardon after a year spent in prison. But Trenck had not been advised of this, and his more rigorous treatment drove him to fresh efforts to gain his freedom; efforts which the good nature or the well-paid complicity of his keepers greatly favoured.

Our hero's second attempt covered him at once with mud and ridicule. He was confined in a tower looking out upon the town.

By making a saw of a pocket-knife the baron was enabled to cut through three bars of his window-grating. An officer then procured him a file, with which he severed five more. Then, with a rope made of strips of leather cut from his portmanteau and of the coverlet of his bed, he slid down without accident to the ground. The night was dark and rainy, and all things favoured the fugitive. But an unexpected difficulty presented itself in a sewer, which he was compelled to cross in order to reach the town, and there the luckless baron floundered, being neither able to advance nor to retire, and was at last fain to call upon the sentinel to extricate him.

An imprudent correspondence with his cousin, the Austrian, was made the pretext of his earliest imprisonment in the castle of Glatz. Trenck, who could not conceive that a man of his rank and distinction should remain long in duress, wrote a somewhat bold letter to the king, demanding to be tried by a military Eight days only had elapsed after this most abtribunal. Frederick did not respond, and surd and unfortunate adventure, when Trenck, Trenck, seeing that his place in the royal with unparalleled audacity, had nearly gained body-guard had been given to another, after his liberty in a way wholly unpremeditated. peace had been concluded, began to meditate The commandant of the castle made him a upon escape. visit of inspection, and improved the opporHis first attempt ended quickly in mortify-tunity of giving this desperate young fellow ing failure. He had won over many of the a lecture on his frequent attempts at escape, guards of the castle by a liberal use of money, by which he said his crime had been seriously with which he was abundantly supplied. Two aggravated in the king's estimation. of them agreed to aid him and accompany him in his flight, but the three most imprudently desired to carry off with them an officer who had been condemned to ten years' imprisonment in the same fortress.

When all their preparations had been made, this scoundrel, whom Trenck had loaded with favours, betrayed them, and received his pardon as the price of his perfidy. One of the officers was warned in time to save himself, and the other got off with a year's confinement, by dint of Trenck's money. As for the baron

The baron fired up at the word crime, and demanded to know for how long a term he had been consigned to the fortress. The commandant replied that an officer who had been detected in a treasonable correspondence with the enemies of his country could never expect the pardon of the king. The hilt of the commandant's sword was within easy and tempting grasp; there were only a sentinel and an officer of the guard in attendance; it seemed a golden moment; Trenck seized it, in seizing the sword, rushing rapidly from the room, hurling the

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